Local Arts

There is something very intimate about a cappella music. It is not intellectual. With its vulnerable beauty unshielded by other sounds, the human voice resonates deeply and honestly across any cultural boundary.

From within the Coast String Fiddlers, a new and innovative group has developed. The nine members of NYWP explore new music composed and taught by Oliver Schroer.

Local artist Clayton Anderson keeps a low profile on the Coast but his reputation is big with the prestigious Heffel Gallery of Vancouver.

It began as the best things often do, over food and wine - barbecued shrimp and white wine to be exact.

An accomplished fencer and performer, Laura Marshall delights in teaching the comical art of improvisational (improv) theatre. "Performance art uses our own selves as the medium of that expression," said Marshall.

No sooner had the 10th annual Gibsons Landing Jazz Festival packed away its tents and equipment than organizer Linda Williams was promoting the next event: Music in the Landing.

Music, dance, original writing, film, theatre - the Showcase of the Performing Arts (SOPA) has it all. SOPA opens its fourth annual season at the Heritage Playhouse this July 8 with a gala event that gives the audience a taste of classical music.

Sechelt's Jessica Casey sits at her kitchen table almost every day to work on an art form that she finds peaceful and therapeutic - cedar bark weaving in the First Nations tradition.

It was during the war in Iraq that artist Helen Broadfoot first got angry. When she heard stories of the horrors of war she became even madder and wrote to the social activist Noam Chomsky to ask just what she could do.

At a garden party held last weekend, Lois Smith, past president and honourary board member of the Sunshine Coast Dance Society (SCDS) presented dance bursaries worth $500 each to local dancers, Georgina Hardman and Rebecca Gordon.